Rocky
and
the Dodos (1998
- 1999) producers:
Cosgrove Hall Films animation:
stop-motion animation episodes: 26 x 10mins
Dodos aren't all extinct you know. Oh no.
There's still at least one glorious
gaggle of them rocking and rolling along
quite happily on an isolated outcrop in
the middle of the southern ocean. Rocky
shares his cave with Elvis, who's part
penguin, part blue-footed booby and completely
barking. Bill is the lisping, highly
camp dodo barman at the Loose Juice Bar,
who's obsessed with creating new
cocktails for the delectable Wonda to test. Oh,
and he's equally obsessed with
perfecting his magnificent rock'n'roll quiff.
Tantra is all punked-up with nowhere
to go. And as for Astra, well, she's the
island's astrological sage - a pink
Professor Trelawney, if you like - who studies
the island's flotsam and
jetsam quite compulsively in the hope of
finding artefacts from the Beyond.
When these multi-hued misfits stop squawking and
squabbling around
their nesting holes, they like to hang out together
at Bill's
kitsch
beach bar. The Loose Juice Bar is also host
to their pals, including a
droll Swedish puffin called Bjorn and Dougan
the dour and dozy
red walrus. And then there are the little limpets,
who slither in and around
the antics of the dodos and get up to their
own interstitial tricks and
manoeuvres. Occasionally, they even come to the
aid of our flightless
friends, because - well - dodos have a certain reputation
for daffiness,
after all, and Rocky and his pals are very, very
daft indeed...
This slapdash, slapstick series is stuffed
with pop culture references
and even some teen toilet humour - from
fart gags to regurgitation.
The stories are driven along in vignette-style
scenes, with limpet acrobatics
in-between, and- dang! - those Limpets
are clever little things. If they're not
making paperchains, they're stunt-jumping on
motorbikes, or playing
limpet-in-a-saucepan jokes on their pals.
They generate a great big part
of this show's appeal, so it's no surprise
that they even get their very own
starring episode "The
Limpet Olympics" in which they gather en masse
to light a miniature torch and partake in
a host of li'l limpet sports events,
including pole vaulting, the parallel bars,
the discus, and even
synchronised swimming!
Season
OneSeason
Two
It's Good to Squawk Friends
and Anemonies
Rock Chick Café
Dodo
Eggs Stink Mind
Over Mutter
Eye of the Dodo Dodos
Just Wanna Have Fun
Dodo Abduction
Double-O-Dodo
When the Green Stuff Turns Fluffy A
Creep in the Night
Three Footed Fartians Seeing
is Deceiving
On the Rocks The
Root of all Weevils
Cheese Means Dreams Listen
With Rocky
Hey Blue Foot You've
Been Blamed
The Limpet Olympics Peck
to the Future
Cry Beak Dodos
That Go Flap in the Night
Cheatin' Chick Where
Have all the Dodos Gone?
Rocky
and the Dodos on DVD
These two titles are getting hard
to come by now,
but they're all that's been released
thus far:
producer: Jackie
Cockle exec producer: Mark
Hall director:
Sarah Ball originalmusic: Sam
Sutton script writer: Chris
Allen storyline
& script editing: Jackie
Cockle, Sarah Ball design & art direction: Bridget
Appleby supervising animator: Paul
Couvela animation: Monica
McCartney, Will Hodge,
Hayden Secker, Lucy Gell,
Rory
Bresnihan puppets:
Mackinnon and Saunders
Lucy
Gell, Joe Holman,
Justin
Exley, Georgina Hayns,
Robbie
Manning, Michelle Scattergood,
Carloine Wallace, Christine Keogh,
Vilija
Kontrimas, Bethan Jones,
Bridget Smith set makers: Jeff
Spain, Richard Sykes,
Samantha
Hanks, Lucy Burscough,
Bill
Martin, Rick Kent props& limpet
training: Jon
Fletcher, Owen Ballhatchet prod asistant: Debbie
Peers model lighting camera: Tim
Harper, John Duffy camera assist: Andy
Crofts audio production: Hullabaloo
Studios
Alfasound
off line editing: Zyggy
Markiewicz
Flix
Facilities on line editing: 4:2:2
Manchester voices:
Bill Dufris
Maggie
Fox
Marc
Silk